This article offers the reader useful information about acquiring a long-term visa to stay in Thailand.
If you visited the Royal Kingdom and are now hopelessly in love with the beautiful culture, you will need to obtain a long-term visa. If you are thinking that money is all that immigration want to see, you are wrong.
Thai Visa Options
It is not easy to obtain a visa to stay in Thailand indefinitely. This article outlines a few options.
Marriage Visa
If you are married to a Thai national, you can apply for a non-immigrant visa based on marriage. Once you have this visa, it can be renewed on an annual basis from within Thailand. Should you wish to leave the country for any reason, apply for a re-entry visa; otherwise, your visa is null and void. You must meet the current financial criteria to obtain this visa, which involves depositing a specific amount of Thai baht into a Thai bank account.
Educational Visa
You can apply for an extended stay in the kingdom if you are enrolled in an approved Thai language academy, or you could learn about Buddhism. You can stay in Thailand for a maximum of 14 months with this kind of visa. The school will help you to apply, or you could use an English-speaking Thai lawyer, who knows the process inside out.
Retirement Visa
If you are at least 50 years old, you can apply for a retirement visa, which can be renewed annually at your local immigration office. Again, you must open a savings account at a Thai bank and deposit the sum of 800,000 baht, which should be in the account for 3 months prior to applying for the visa.
Set Up A Company In Thailand
There are Thailand international law firms like Vize Counselor who can advise you on business registration and facilitate your application. This should enable you to apply for a work permit, which the lawyer can apply for on your behalf. Visit the website of Thai Board Of Investment (BOI), and learn about the different attractive incentives being offered to foreign investors.
Find A Thai Company To Hire You
If you are degree qualified, you can look for a Thai company to employ you; they would issue you with a letter for the Thai Embassy in your home country, and that enables you to obtain a non-immigrant visa that you need to obtain a work permit. Your work permit runs concurrently with your visa and should be renewed every year, along with your visa. If your employer doesn’t deal with this, you can hire a local lawyer to process the application.
It is very important that you never overstay your visa, as this could lead to prison, a fine and even deportation. If you overstay by a few days, you can pay the fine at the airport (500bt per day), but should you be asked to show your visa when out and about and it has expired, you are in deep water and will lose your liberty for a while.
Many expats use local lawyers to handle their visa application, which is the safest way to get the right long-term visa.